xxi, 203 pages : 24 cm

Exploring the nature of anxiety and phobia, Lockwood explores the lively debate about how much of our fear of insects can be attributed to ancestral predisposition for our own survival and how much is learned through individual experiences. Drawing on vivid case studies, Lockwood explains how insects have come to infest our minds in sometimes devastating ways and supersede even the most rational understanding of the benefits these creatures provide

Includes bibliographical references and index

Prologue: the infestation begins -- The nature of fear and the fear of nature -- Evolutionary psychology: survival of the scaredest -- Learning to fear: little Miss Muffett's lesson -- A fly in our mental soup: how insects push our disgust buttons -- The maggoty mind: a natural history of disgust -- The terrible trio: imagining insects into our lives -- Treating the infested mind: exterminating entomophobia -- Overcoming fear and disgust for fun and profit: the professionals -- The infatuated mind: entomophilia as the human condition -- Entomapatheia: can't we just live and let live? -- Back to the real world: good night, sleep tight or maybe not -- Epilogue: insects as a psychological precipice

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